'Godzilla': "the movie missing off your shelf"

Euronews

After months of hype, this summer’s blockbuster ‘Godzilla’ has opened in London.

The latest in a long string of movies featuring the iconic monster, this 21st century version embodies very present-day fears including tsunamis, earthquakes and a planet exhausted by its ill-treatment at the hands of humankind.

It is British director Gareth Edwards’ second feature film after his micro-budget debut Monsters.

“Everyone knows Godzilla,” he said at the London premiere. “I think if you go around the world and show everyone images of different cinematic characters, the two that most people would recognize are Mickey Mouse and Godzilla and yet nobody really knows, not many people are familiar with a Godzilla movie, or they have a vague memory as a child. And so we were trying to make an adult version for the big kids and everybody – that movie that’s missing off your shelf, that we’ve always wanted to see anyway.”

Originally conceived as a metaphor for nuclear weapons, ‘Godzilla’ was born in Japan in 1954, in the wake of the Nagasaki and Hiroshima bombings.

The movie features an A-list cast including Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Ken Watanabe, Juliette Binoche and Bryan Cranston, who plays Joe Brody.

“Well, I loved Godzilla when I was a boy,” he said. “I mean when I was 7, playing with my Godzilla toys, and crushing sand castle buildings, I never realized that I would have the opportunity to do that in real life… in the movie, I mean – but it feels real. It was just a lot of fun.”